Ken Wallston PhD, MA

Bio

Wallston is one of the developers of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scales, a set of measures assessing beliefs about control over a person's health status. With colleagues in psychology and nursing, he also has developed and validated a number of other measures of individual differences - e.g., the Perceived Health Competence Scale, the Vanderbilt Multidimensional Pain Coping Inventory, the Perceived Vulnerability Scale, and the Brief Resilient Coping Scale. His latest instruments include the Cognitive Adaptability Index and the Perceived Medical Condition Self-Management Scales.

In the early 1980s, Wallston began studying adjustment to rheumatoid arthritis. Wallston's current research revolve around examining the psychological, behavioral, and physiological effects of having individuals disclose their thoughts and feelings in writing about particularly stressful or traumatic events that they have experienced. Subject populations include patients with HIV/AIDS or diabetes and cigarette smokers.

He also is involved as a co-investigator in two other diabetes studies, one examining diabetes numeracy, another looking at ways of using the Internet to educate adolescents with type 1 diabetes. In addition, he is investigating the effects of public service messages on individuals' attitudes toward air pollution and their driving behaviors.

Education

PhD, University of Connecticut

MA, University of Connecticut

AB, Cornell University (Psychology)

Current Research/Scholarly Interests

Psychometric measurement

Perceived control of health; health locus of control; perceived competence

Mentor

The Effects of Expressive Writing in Breast Cancer Survivors with Lymphedema. Mentored Research Scholar Grant in Applied and Clinical Research from the American Cancer Society to Sheila Ridner, Ph.D., MSN. (1/1/07 - 12/31/09).